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By Steve Israel

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CHAPTER FIVE:Those Who don’t Fit the Model: Family Situations and Status in Judaism and the Jewish World

C: EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

26. Evaluating the Equation [Introductory section & the entire chapter] (An hour and a half)

• If all five subjects have been covered – singles, widow[er]s, divorcees, intermarrieds and gays - remind the group of the five subjects.
• If only some of these were explored, remind the group which they were.
• Ask participants to list these subjects as category headings on a piece of paper and leave a space opposite, or in a second column.
• Each participant should write down one sentence opposite each category on their paper. The sentence should express any central thought or conclusion that they feel about that particular category of non-conventional “family unit”.
• They should now draw a line under all the [five] categories; underneath this they should try and formulate any general conclusions that they can draw from all the issues that they have covered in this unit (chapter).
  The conclusions should start with the following three phrases:
  • I think that the Jewish community needs to…
  • I think that the Jewish family…
  • I think that I need to…
• Rearrange the participants into small groups of up to four participants per group. Ask them to share their three final comments and explain their ideas.
  • Are there any ideas that are common to the group?
• The group now reassembles.
  Each sub-group gives a report of the major ideas that surfaced in their framework and emphasises any conclusions that the group, or parts of it, might have reached.
• Open a discussion on the basis of the ideas being expressed, and at some point write/post up the equation discussed at the beginning of the chapter:

  JEWISH LIFE = MARRIED LIFE IN A NUCLEAR, OR AN
  EXTENDED FAMILY FRAMEWORK

• Ask the group what this might mean.
  • Ask the group if they think that it is a fair representation of Jewish attitudes towards family frameworks, based on what they have learnt.
  • Finally, ask the group to list the pro’s and con’s of this approach to the family.
• There are many advantages (stability, values of commitment, survival and continuity) but presumably, on the negative side they will list the fact that this places many people outside the normative Jewish framework, and many suffer because of it.
  • Discuss whether anything can be done about it.
  • Are there ways to “enfranchise” and legitimise those that are left outside?
• Conclude by asking the group to suggest topics and an outline for a group project – some kind of a task that they could take on or an initiative that they could make, to help this process of enfranchisement and legitimisation.